The FBI is investigating whether New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s 2021 campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations, the New York Times reported on Thursday after the bureau raided the home of Brianna Suggs, a close associate and chief fundraiser of the mayor’s.
Investigators are looking into the potential involvement of a Brooklyn construction company with connections to Turkey and a small Washington, D.C.-based university that has ties to both Turkey and the New York City mayor, according to a search warrant obtained by the Times. The investigation is also focused on discerning whether Adams’s campaign kicked back benefits to the construction company’s officials and employees, and to Turkish officials.
Adams was visiting Washington, D.C., on Thursday for a series of meetings with the White House to address the ongoing migrant crisis in New York when he canceled those appointments and abruptly returned to New York City after the raid. There is no indication that the investigation is targeting the mayor, nor if he accused of wrongdoing, according to the report.
A person with knowledge of the raid on Suggs’s Brooklyn home told the New York Times that agents from the bureau’s public-corruption unit questioned Suggs as her home was being searched. Campaign-finance filings show Suggs has been paid more than $150,000 by Adams since 2021 through her company, Suggs Solutions LLC, for campaign consulting and fundraiser efforts.
Agents seized three iPhones, two laptop computers, papers, and other evidence.
“I heard screaming maybe two or three hours ago. I heard helicopters,” an unnamed neighbor who witnessed the FBI home search told the New York Post. “The house is boarded up.”
Suggs, a registered lobbyist, was paid by a real-estate firm to lobby the mayor’s office and the New York City Council in 2022, according to state records reviewed by the Times. She worked as an aide to Adams when he served as Brooklyn borough president.
Charles Kretchmer Lutvak, the mayor’s spokesman, suggested Adams’s sudden departure from the nation’s capital was unrelated to the raid. “I’m not aware of that,” Lutwak told the Times following the home search on Thursday. “The mayor is returning to New York City to address a matter.” The spokesperson further clarified that the migrant-crisis meetings would “be rescheduled as soon as possible.”
In addition to meeting with White House officials, Adams was also scheduled to speak with Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson as well as members of Congress.
Earlier in the day, Adams posted a video on X announcing his trip to the nation’s capital “to join my fellow mayors to talk with our federal partners about the asylum seeker crisis.”
“We are headed to DC to meet with our congressional delegation and the White House to address this real issue with the asylum and migrant issue in our city and we’ll keep you updated as the day goes.”
On my way to DC to join my fellow mayors to talk with our federal partners about the asylum seeker crisis. Follow along throughout the day. pic.twitter.com/K6bvwP4gwQ
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) November 2, 2023
In recent months, Adams has become increasingly vocal about the shortcomings of federal authorities to curb illegal migration and its impact on New York. In early September, Adams warned that the growing financial toll of providing for over 100,000 illegal immigrants could require municipal agencies to cut expenses, with some departments facing cuts of up to 15 percent.
“While our compassion is limitless, our resources are not,” the mayor said during a recorded address at the time. “We have not received substantial support from the federal or state governments to handle those costs or change the course of this crisis.”
“The simple truth is that longtime New Yorkers and asylum seekers will feel these potential cuts and they will hurt,” Adams warned.
As city revenues have continued to decline, and the Big Apple has been saddled with a projected $12 billion migrant-related tab, Adams demanded local agencies trim as much as 5 percent of their upcoming budgets, the first of which will be publicized in November.
“I want to be clear: these tough decisions are a direct result of inaction in Washington and in Albany,” Adams added during his remarks. “But the die is not yet cast, and we can still avoid these cuts if Washington and Albany do their part by paying their fair share, and coming up with a decompression strategy that reduces the pressure on New York City, so we are not forced to manage this crisis almost entirely on our own. ”